AI Hype and Skepticism: Economist Paul Romer

Rebecca Finlay, CEO of Partnership on AI (PAI), believes that artificial intelligence poses risks — and that organizations should learn from one another and help others avoid the same hazards by disclosing the mistakes they’ve made in implementing the technology. In this episode, Rebecca discusses the nonprofit’s work supporting the responsible use of AI, including how it’s incorporating global perspectives into its AI governance efforts. She also addresses the complexities of integrating AI into the workforce and the misleading narrative around the inevitability of AI taking over humans’ jobs. She advocates for a proactive approach to adopting the technology instead, where organizations, policy makers, and workers collaborate to that ensure AI enhances jobs rather than eliminating them. Read the episode transcript here. Me, Myself, and AI is a collaborative podcast from MIT Sloan Management Review and Boston Consulting Group and is hosted by Sam Ransbotham and Shervin Khodabandeh. Our engineer is David Lishansky, and the coordinating producers are Allison Ryder and Alanna Hooper. Stay in touch with us by joining our LinkedIn group, AI for Leaders at mitsmr.com/AIforLeaders or by following Me, Myself, and AI on LinkedIn. We encourage you to rate and review our show. Your comments may be used in Me, Myself, and AI materials.

Jeremy Kahn’s investigation into the risks and effects of artificial intelligence are reflected in a new book, Mastering AI: A Survival Guide to Our Superpowered Future. But he has also written extensively about the technology in his role as Fortune magazine’s AI editor. On today’s episode, he joins Sam and Shervin to share the insights on AI that he has gained through his work. heir conversation explores a range of subjects, including people’s growing reliance on AI technology — specifically, generative AI, whose outputs are difficult, if not impossible, to trace back to a reliable source. They also discuss AI’s effect on critical thinking, how best to educate people about the technology’s risks and limitations, the value of cultivating employees’ adaptability, and how GenAI’s ability to simulate human interactions could be affecting people’s real-life interpersonal skills. Read the episode transcript here.  Guest bio: Jeremy Kahn is an award-winning journalist for Fortune magazine, where he covers artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies. In addition to writing cover stories and features, he pens Fortune’s weekly “Eye on AI” newsletter and cochairs its Brainstorm AI technology conferences in his role as AI editor. Previously, he wrote about technology, including AI, for Bloomberg. His writing on a range of subjects has also appeared in The New York Times, Newsweek, The Atlantic, Smithsonian magazine, The Boston Globe, The New Republic, and Slate. He has reported from India and much of South Asia, the Ivory Coast, Iraq, Venezuela, and most countries in Western Europe. He is the author of Mastering AI: A Survival Guide to Our Superpowered Future (Simon & Schuster, 2024). Me, Myself, and AI is a collaborative podcast from MIT Sloan Management Review and Boston Consulting Group and is hosted by Sam Ransbotham and Shervin Khodabandeh. Our engineer is David Lishansky, and the coordinating producers are Allison Ryder and Alanna Hooper. Stay in touch with us by joining our LinkedIn group, AI for Leaders at mitsmr.com/AIforLeaders or by following Me, Myself, and AI on LinkedIn. We encourage you to rate and review our show. Your comments may be used in Me, Myself, and AI materials.

Andrew Rabinovich began his career in technology working on AI applications for cancer detection. He also spent time at Google, working on early iterations of products like Google Glass. Now at Upwork, as vice president and head of AI and machine learning, Rabinovich and his team are working to enhance the digital labor platform’s capabilities with AI solutions to enable more sophisticated matching of resources to projects. On today’s episode, Andrew shares his views on the ways AI could take on more complex projects while using fewer resources. In the way of AI’s rapid progress, however, are slow advancements in hardware. While AI has made huge strides in cognition, he says, hardware struggles to match its capabilities, especially in wearable tech and robotics. Still, Andrew envisions a future with hyper-personalized digital assistants for everyone. Read the episode transcript here.  Guest bio Andrew Rabinovich is vice president and head of AI and machine learning at Upwork. He previously held R&D leadership positions at Google before joining augmented reality company Magic Leap as head of AI in 2015. In 2020, Rabinovich cofounded Headroom, an AI-powered videoconferencing platform that was acquired by Upwork in 2023. He holds a Ph.D. in computer science from University of California, San Diego, and has studied machine learning with an emphasis in computer vision and multimodal AI for over 20 years. He has also authored more than 100 peer-reviewed publications and patents. Me, Myself, and AI is a collaborative podcast from MIT Sloan Management Review and Boston Consulting Group and is hosted by Sam Ransbotham and Shervin Khodabandeh. Our engineer is David Lishansky, and the coordinating producers are Allison Ryder and Alanna Hooper. Stay in touch with us by joining our LinkedIn group, AI for Leaders at mitsmr.com/AIforLeaders or by following Me, Myself, and AI on LinkedIn. We encourage you to rate and review our show. Your comments may be used in Me, Myself, and AI materials.

Alessandra Sala, senior director of data science and AI at Shutterstock, brings an impressive background in responsible AI to her role. Also the global president of Women in AI and cochair of the Women4Ethical AI platform at UNESCO, Alessandra joins this episode to describe how Shutterstock, widely known as a stock photo company, has become a go-to destination for creative assets — and AI training data. Alessandra outlines Shutterstock’s content acquisition and royalty models, which reward contributors whose assets are used to train third parties’ AI models and have set the standard for other stock media companies. She argues that these ethical approaches aren’t just a moral choice — they offer strategic advantage, given that these assets are integral to shaping the future of AI-generated content. Learn how Alessandra’s team is leading the charge in ethical AI and redefining the creative landscape. Read the episode transcript here. For more on model collapse — when AI models are trained on AI-generated content — see this recent New York Times article, “When AI’s Output Is a Threat to AI Itself.” Guest Bio Alessandra Sala is the senior director of AI and data science at Shutterstock. She has acquired more than 10 years of experience in research and innovation through her work in both academic and commercial environments. Sala is passionate about advanced analytics, machine learning, and computational models, with a focus on transitioning innovation from research to products. Me, Myself, and AI is a collaborative podcast from MIT Sloan Management Review and Boston Consulting Group and is hosted by Sam Ransbotham and Shervin Khodabandeh. Our engineer is David Lishansky, and the coordinating producers are Allison Ryder and Alanna Hooper. Stay in touch with us by joining our LinkedIn group, AI for Leaders at mitsmr.com/AIforLeaders or by following Me, Myself, and AI on LinkedIn. We encourage you to rate and review our show. Your comments may be used in Me, Myself, and AI materials.

Saket Srivastava, CIO at work management platform Asana, has had technology roles at organizations such as General Electric, IBM, and Fujitsu, moving from back-end IT services positions to more strategic business leadership roles. Asana has already been working with artificial intelligence for several years, Saket notes, and has seen the technology’s role evolve: Rather than simply optimizing tasks, it now often acts as more of a teammate as it’s integrated into core workflows to enhance productivity by taking on cognitive tasks like writing project status updates. Saket joins this episode to share his observations about the evolution of CIOs from back-end IT managers to front-line business leaders driving innovation and strategy, especially in the context of AI. He also discusses the benefits of being part of a CIO community in which people freely share their knowledge and experience and support one another as they navigate a rapidly evolving tech environment. Read the episode transcript here. Guest bio: Saket Srivastava is the CIO for work management platform Asana. He oversees the company’s educational and information technology organization, which involves optimizing technology systems and processes, connecting technology strategy to overarching business strategy, and ensuring that technology infrastructure supports organizational goals. Previously, Srivastava held executive positions at Square, Guidewire Software, and other leading technology companies. He holds a master’s degree from the Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad and an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. Me, Myself, and AI is a collaborative podcast from MIT Sloan Management Review and Boston Consulting Group and is hosted by Sam Ransbotham and Shervin Khodabandeh. Our engineer is David Lishansky, and the coordinating producers are Allison Ryder and Alanna Hooper. Stay in touch with us by joining our LinkedIn group, AI for Leaders at mitsmr.com/AIforLeaders or by following Me, Myself, and AI on LinkedIn. We encourage you to rate and review our show. Your comments may be used in Me, Myself, and AI materials.

In the time before Me, Myself, and AI returns for Season 10, we're pleased to bring you a special episode from our friends at the Modern CTO podcast. Read the episode transcript here. From Modern CTO: Today we’re talking to Sam Ransbotham, professor at Boston College. Sam shares with us the reason that the vast majority of companies are falling behind the AI curve, why most people just slap AI onto a problem instead of fixing it, and the ways in which technology can improve not only our business processes but also our quality of life.

Joelle Pineau’s curiosity led her to pursue a doctorate in engineering with a focus on robotics, which she describes as her “gateway into AI.” As vice president of AI research at Meta, Joelle leads a team committed to openness in the service of high-quality research, responsible AI development, and community contribution. In this episode, Joelle, who is also a professor at McGill University, weighs the advantages industry and academia each have for conducting artificial intelligence research. She also describes specific AI research projects Meta is working on, including scientific discovery initiatives focused on addressing societal problems like carbon capture. Read the episode transcript here. Guest bio: Joelle Pineau is vice president of AI research at Meta and a professor at McGill University. Her research focuses primarily on developing new models and algorithms for planning and learning in complex, partially observable domains. She also applies these algorithms to robotics, health care, games, and conversational agents. Pineau serves on the board of the Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research and the Journal of Machine Learning Research. She has a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the University of Waterloo and master’s degree and doctorate in robotics from Carnegie Mellon University. Me, Myself, and AI is a collaborative podcast from MIT Sloan Management Review and Boston Consulting Group and is hosted by Sam Ransbotham and Shervin Khodabandeh. Our engineer is David Lishansky, and the coordinating producers are Allison Ryder and Andy Goffin. Stay in touch with us by joining our LinkedIn group, AI for Leaders at mitsmr.com/AIforLeaders or by following Me, Myself, and AI on LinkedIn. We encourage you to rate and review our show. Your comments may be used in Me, Myself, and AI materials.

If you’ve played with Photoshop’s Generative Fill feature or worked in Nvidia’s Omniverse platform, you’ve touched tools that Patrick Hebron’s work has made possible. A dual major in philosophy and film production, Patrick approaches creative pursuits with a deep curiosity and the belief that if a “tool gets used in exactly the way that we anticipated, then we have really failed catastrophically.” He believes that emerging digital design tools will elevate human creativity, and he aims to develop technology solutions that will empower creative end users to continue to push boundaries. On this episode, Patrick describes some of the technical challenges in building generative AI solutions for creative pursuits, as well as their vast potential. Read the episode transcript here. Guest bio: Patrick Hebron is a designer, software developer, teacher, and author. His work explores the intersection of machine learning, design tools, programming languages, and operating systems. In particular, he has focused on the development of AI-driven digital design tools. He founded the Machine Intelligence Design groups at Nvidia and Adobe and was vice president of R&D at Stability AI. He is the author of Machine Learning for Designers, published by O’Reilly Media, as well as numerous articles, including Rethinking Design Tools in the Age of Machine Learning and A Unified Tool for the Education of Humans and Machines. He has also worked as an adjunct graduate professor and scientist in residence at New York University. Me, Myself, and AI is a collaborative podcast from MIT Sloan Management Review and Boston Consulting Group and is hosted by Sam Ransbotham and Shervin Khodabandeh. Our engineer is David Lishansky, and the coordinating producers are Allison Ryder and Andy Goffin. Stay in touch with us by joining our LinkedIn group, AI for Leaders at mitsmr.com/AIforLeaders or by following Me, Myself, and AI on LinkedIn. We encourage you to rate and review our show. Your comments may be used in Me, Myself, and AI materials.

When Mario Rodriguez emigrated from Cuba to the United States at age 14 with his parents — a university professor, and a teacher turned electrical engineer — they had already instilled in him the value of education and a love of learning. That passion has guided him throughout his career — as a program manager with Microsoft; then as part of GitHub, following Microsoft’s 2018 acquisition of the developer platform; and as a cofounder of a charter school in North Carolina. Now, as senior vice president of product at GitHub, Mario oversees the team developing the GitHub Copilot AI-assisted software development tool. Mario joins this episode to share his views on product development, GitHub Copilot’s effect on productivity and job satisfaction, and a future in which more people can easily develop their own software. Read the episode transcript here. Guest bio: Mario Rodriguez leads the GitHub Product team as senior vice president of product. His core identity is that of a learner, and his passion is creating developer tools — so much so that he has spent the past 20 years in leadership roles across Microsoft and GitHub. His most recent work involves overseeing GitHub’s AI strategy and launching and growing the GitHub Copilot product line across thousands of organizations and millions of users. Rodriguez also cochairs a charter school that he cofounded in an effort to help progress STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) education in rural regions of the United States. Me, Myself, and AI is a collaborative podcast from MIT Sloan Management Review and Boston Consulting Group and is hosted by Sam Ransbotham and Shervin Khodabandeh. Our engineer is David Lishansky, and the coordinating producers are Allison Ryder and Andy Goffin. Stay in touch with us by joining our LinkedIn group, AI for Leaders at mitsmr.com/AIforLeaders or by following Me, Myself, and AI on LinkedIn. We encourage you to rate and review our show. Your comments may be used in Me, Myself, and AI materials.

Paul Romer once considered himself the most optimistic economist. He rightfully predicted that technology would blow up as an economic driver coming out of the inflation of the 1970s but acknowledges he did not foresee the inequality that technology advances would lead to. On this episode, Paul shares his views on AI advances and their implications for society. Rather than pave the way for full automation, he is a proponent of keeping humans in the loop and believes that, rather than slowing down technology, it can be pointed in a direction for more meaningful and beneficial use, citing education as an area ripe to benefit from AI. Listen to the episode transcript here. Me, Myself, and AI is a collaborative podcast from MIT Sloan Management Review and Boston Consulting Group and is hosted by Sam Ransbotham and Shervin Khodabandeh. Our engineer is David Lishansky, and the coordinating producers are Allison Ryder and Andy Goffin. Stay in touch with us by joining our LinkedIn group, AI for Leaders at mitsmr.com/AIforLeaders or by following Me, Myself, and AI on LinkedIn. We encourage you to rate and review our show. Your comments may be used in Me, Myself, and AI materials.